Mei Sum

65 N Pauahi St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 531-3268

DMSC: This coming Friday, the three of us won't be able to have lunch (vacation - yay!). So we decided to do our Friday lunch on a Wednesday instead. Since IG and APOO said I never choose our lunch destination, I firmly put my foot down and chose Mei Sum. This was only after APOO said she wanted to eat e-mein. This clearly limited my choices to places that I know serve e-mein. And the only place we know that serves e-mein, within our general walking distance, is Mei Sum. So I guess in effect, APOO chose where we were eating lunch today. DAMMIT! Stupid APOO!!

APOO: WHAT?! Wait a minute. So you are giving me credit for choosing the place this time? Ok, then you choose next time. YES!

DMSC: Neither IG nor APOO wanted dim sum, since we've had dim dum the last two times we've gone out (now tell me - are those two supposed to be real Chinese?) Anyhow, I ordered some potstickers from the cart. They were awesome!

APOO: What was more awesome was the Minute Chicken. I have never heard of this dish and so I guess I never tried it. I asked the waitress what it was and she explained to me that it is a local dish tailored to the local taste. Even though this dish was not authentic Chinese food, it was definitely delicious.

APOO: E-mein was all I craved for this afternoon. Since DMSC wanted vegetables, AGAIN!, we ordered the vegetable e-mein. I keep teasing DMSC for wanting vegetables. Honestly, I am really glad that he does because I need to include more greens in my diet.

DMSC: In an effort to show more assertiveness, I told the group that I wanted gai lan. Of course, they promptly ordered green beans with XO sauce, which suggests that maybe I should just shut my mouth and let them order, because they're not going to listen to me anyway.

Plus the XO sauce has dried shrimps and dried scallops, which I am allergic too!! Aargh! But to my surprise I ate that XO sauce and survived. I think next time I'll order the preserved tendon with spicy peanut sauce, just to test IG and APOO.

APOO: Hey hey DMSC, we ordered the vegetable e-mein for you. And I am really sorry for ordering the XO sauce. I wanted you guys to try the taste, but I totally forgot about the dried scallops and shrimp. So sorrleee :) To make DMSC happy again, IG got up to position the dim sum cart for DMSC to take a picture. See, we are not that mean to each other, ha!


APOO: Here are our empty plates. We ate pretty fast this time since we were all super hungry. Funny thing happened. Both DMSC and I came up with the same idea (AT THE SAME TIME) to take a photo of our empty plates and use it as our profile photo for this blog. Great minds think the same. This photo is classic because it shows a bit or our personalities. My plate has nothing but green (remember I mentioned I need to eat more greens), DMSC's plate has leftover shrimp (because he is allergic to shrimp), and IG's plate has leftover fatty stuff (because he hates tendon and fatty foods).

DMSC: After lunch APOO wanted to go to Ruby to get some pastries. IG and I bought some paper cakes, which are these really light sponge cakes wrapped in paper. The paper wrapping makes them look like they'll be white, but they are actually very yellow. They're not too sweet and very airy.

DMSC: Next APOO wanted to get some baby bok choi. When she mentioned she wanted to go, IG glared at his watch.

DMSC: On the way back, I remembered that I'm going to my parents for dinner tonight, so I picked up the exact same box of pastries that APOO bought, since I trust that she knew what she was buying.
IG: IG glared at his watch again.

Happy Garden

1113 Maunakea St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 538-1088

DMSC: On some days, we can't decide where to go. One of the usual "go-to" restaurants is Happy Garden. The food here is good and not too expensive!

APOO: I am so happy IG and DMSC introduced me to this place. The food is really good, the people are Chineseee nice, and the place is relatively clean. Oh yeah, food is cheap too!


IG: There is a very charming, landscaped, interior courtyard next to this restaurant. If you need to go potty, you can ask for the restroom key from the cashier to enter the courtyard.

IG: There were two steamers of this tapioca dim sum, and I wanted the "fresher" looking one. The waitress told me to go back to the table, waited a while, did a switcheroo, and brought us the "staler" one that had been steaming longer and was chewyer!!
APOO: I was just telling IG and DMSC about my high cholesterol. Then IG came back from the dim sum table with steamed custard-filled mochi. My friends are always trying to kill me, slowly and tenderly.

DMSC: We always like the Sam See Mai Funn. This time we ordered it "wet" (with gravy) - but we typically get it dry. I prefer the dry.
APOO: I second that. We had ordered the dry one for the Chinese New Year Celebration we had at work. Not to much left over.

DMSC: I wanted gai lan but they didn't have any so we ordered choi sum instead. This is steamed with oyster sauce drizzled over afterwards.
APOO: Not sure why DMSC wanted vegetables three Fridays in a row. I have always thought he is a meat person. However, I need to eat more veggies since I found out that I have semi-hight cholesterol.

IG: Lower-cholesterol, egg-white, dan tat.
APOO: Goodbye cholesterol and hellooooo egg whites :)

IG: My dining companions are always sooo hungry that they always eat their dim sum before they remember to take photos of our meal!! Only one bean curd roll left!!
APOO: I have never really think much of bean curd rolls. When I found out it seems to be the favorite dim sum for many people in Hawaii, I find myself eating them every time I go dim sum and can't leave without eating one.

Tai Pan Dim Sum

100 N Beretania St # 167
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 599-8899

DMSC: Today we walked over to Tai Pan, which is located in the Chinese Cultural Plaza. It's on the ground floor on the Ewa-Makai corner.

APOO: On the walk over, I kept saying, "I haven't been there, I really haven't." Well, turned out I have been to this restaurant many many times. This was one of the dim sum places I loved when I moved to Hawaii. Now I have a new favorite.

DMSC: The restaurant is bright and clean, and seats maybe 50 people.

APOO: Are you sure DMSC? I don't think the restaurant can sit 50 people. It is a very small place.

DMSC: Dim Sum is always a shared event, and we kept forgetting to take pictures before we started eating, so some of these dishes are partially eaten already!
IG: One lonely siu mai! What happened to my two other siu mai??

APOO: Once again, DMSC wanted vegetables. So, I ordered beef look fun. Hey, there were scallions in the look fun he could nibble on.

IG: One lonely wu gock! What happened to my two other wu gock??

IG: If you eat these steamed sponge cakes right away, they are light and fluffy. If you wait and they cool off, they are dense and dry.

APOO: The sponge cake is one of my favorite dim sum items. It is soft, spongy, and semi-sweet. This one is made with brown sugar. The good and rare ones are made with rock sugar (I think). I have had those in Hong Kong. So delicious!

APOO: I said I wouldn't eat pork but this stupid "law mai gai" just magically walked on my plate and flew in my mouth. The rice was soft and just enough filling to satisfy the taste buds.

DMSC: Steamed spareribs.

APOO: I did not eat these, I think.

DMSC: Here is what was left of the bean curd roll before I remembered to pull out the camera.
IG: One-half of a lonely bean curd roll! What happened to my other two and a half bean curd rolls??

Ruby Restaurant and Bakery

119 N Hotel Street,
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 523-0801

IslandGuy was off so we had to try this place without him.

APOO: My friend, who just came back from Baltimore to visit, told me about this place yesterday. They were rambling on about the delicious juk and the crunchiness of the chinese donuts while I sat quietly but drooling with total jealousy that they get to eat two of my favorite Hong Kong breakfast items on a work day! My cravings lead Death Metal and I to try Ruby for this Friday's Luncheon.
DMSC: It's a small restaurant that seats maybe 30 at the most. In the front there's a case with all kinds of baked goods. While we were having lunch, there was a guy frosting a cake in the back of the restaurant.
APOO: The restaurant had a great selection of bakery items, all of which are inexpensive. I saw my favorite paper wrapped sponge cake and chocolate swiss roll. The restaurant also had baked pineapple bao, red bean bao, and lotus bao. I came back a couple weeks later to try the bao and they were deliciously authentic.
APOO: These are the chinese donuts, or "yao tiu". I ordered this with the preserved egg and beef juk (photo below). It usually comes with pork but since I am trying to cut my pork eating, I told them to sub with beef instead. See, it's great knowing how to speak Chinese because you can tailor the menu to your tastes.
APOO: So awesome being able to eat breakfast during lunch time. More awesome eating juk with the yao liu. I have had better juk, in San Fran and Hong Kong. However, it brought back memories of how much joy a simple breakfast can be.
DMSC: I had the kau yuk, which was good. It had cabbage underneath. The texture was right and the flavor was good. It was served with jasmine rice on the side.